fiction

If you read the 3 books in this arc (Dragon's Kin, Dragon's Fire, & Dragon's Blood) you will
find a lot of repetition and there are parts that just plain bore you. But I could see the point of
doing it this way because of the different views on life on Pern these three books give. With each
you get to see a different side to Pern all taking place at during the same time span sometimes
touching the same events that is where it gets repetitive and that gets old. This book was definately
not your typical "Dragonriders of Pern" style book in that It does not look to dragonriders as the
main characters. Although they are important characters, McCaffrey sheds light on other aspects of
Pernese life such as how firestone was mined, how people were judged and how they became holdless or
Shunned, as well as the friction between holders, whers and crafts.

Outstanding book! Whoever reads this book will clearly understand why this author
has received several international awards for his talent. His novels, short story
anthologies and poetry works show a deep knowledge of the human soul and its
pathways. His literary wisdom surely knows how to introduce the readers inside the
characters's intense feelings and conflicts. I would recommend this book to everyone
who loves great literature.

Set in London in 1865, it’s true to the language and milieu (as far as I can
tell) and has an amalgam of elements of the classic British detective story and 19th
century novel: an aristocratic amateur detective and his valet, gentlemen’s clubs,
old boys, country houses and town houses, balls and bridge and afternoon tea. The
London winter is palpable and the understated romance between sleuth and lady
sweet.

There is nothing funny about Cormac McCarthy’s latest novel. It is a compelling,
provocative story about a man and his boy trying to survive in a post-apocalyptical
environment. It is so real and so frightening, it seems that McCarthy displays
prescient tendencies. Has he been there and back? Can he see the future? Is it this
bleak? Reading this novel is a spiritual experience. I am deeply indebted to Reggie
Akers, Fine Arts Library circulation supervisor, for recommending it to me. My
vision of the future has been transformed.

My friend Stephanie recommended this book to me. She picked it up in the Bay Area
where the author is a local celebrity. Turns out Wilson is also a performing artist
and arts critic, even more reason for me, as Fine Arts Librarian, to delve into this
novel. It is another coming of age story, this one of Liza Normal (who is anything
but normal). Her raison d’etre is to become a successful actress and/or singer. The
book is the trials and tribulations of this quest. The characters that surround Liza
include her loudmouth mother, reclusive brother, and a whole host of bizarre and
endearing characters. Wilson’s book is hilarious. From the first few pages, until
the very end, I was completely engaged and amused.

I love fiction especially coming of age stories. I was having lunch with Nancy
Schiesari, a Radio-Television-Film professor and lauded cinematographer earlier this
Spring and she recommended Carousel of Progress to me. The story is about a teenage
girl growing up in L.A. whose parents are getting divorced. There is so much truth
and honesty in this tale, the characters are so real, and the dynamics of the
relationships so complex. Tanney grew up in L.A. and now lives in Austin, just like
me. Schiesari knows Tanney personally because Tanney is also a cinematographer. The
story was so familiar, it was hard to put down.

Lines in the first paragraph pull you into a story that never follows a straight
line: “The pretender to the Emperor’s throne was a fat thirty-seven year old
Chinaman called Artie Wu who always jogged along Malibu beach right after dawn even
in the summer. It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove
Pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell and met the man with six
greyhounds.” This book is about the ultimate con. You’re never sure until the very
end who is actually being conned and why. This is a character driven story and there
are is an amazing list of characters from Otherguy Overby, to the folk singing trio
of Ivory, Lace and Silk, though a former CIA agent who’s gone out on his own, to big
time record producer and the head of a criminal syndicate.

This is T.C. Boyle's seventh collection of short stories. Since 1979, Boyle has
published 19 works of fiction all of them fully engaging the human condition with
hilarity and compassion. I am continually drawn to his short stories because his
ruminations on and illuminations of our human plight are so intense. Boyle is what I
would call a lunatic-humanist-surrealist who can elicit laughter and tears
simultaneously. This collection assembles 14 of his darker stories, all gems and not
to be missed. From the story of an unlikely romance between a fetching American
ornithologist and a spinster Scot on the isle of Unst to the tale of a drive-time
radio host's attempt to break the world record for continuous hours without sleep,
Boyle fascinates while enlivening his characters with frailty, humor, compassion and
odd heroics.

Written and set in Swinging London in the mid-1960s, The Millstone is a story of
a common predicament, told in an uncommon manner. Rosamund Stacey - attractive,
intellectual, conscientious, and self-sufficient - is intimidated by the idea of
sex, and has successfully managed to avoid it altogether until her late twenties.
When her first sexual encounter leaves her pregnant, her life contracts and expands
in unforeseeable ways, as her perceptions are heightened and her preconceptions
softened. Structured as a coming-of-age novel, but slightly inverted, The Millstone
presents the true awakening of a young woman who had already considered herself
enlightened. Drabble's sensitive, humane portrait of the 1960s sexual revolution in
Britain is as fresh and relevant as if it came off the presses today.